"One human family"

Pope Benedict XVI has issued a message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees which takes place this Sunday 16th January 2011. He reflects on the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John: "As I have loved you, so you also should love one another" (Jn 13:34) and calls for ‘welcome’, ‘justice’ and ‘charity’ in the world which he describes as three ‘pillars on which to build an authentic and lasting peace’.

The profound link between all human beings is the origin of the theme that the Holy Father has chosen for our reflection this year: "One human family", one family of brothers and sisters in societies that are becoming ever more multiethnic and intercultural.

All of us belong to one family, migrants and the local populations that welcome them, and all have the same right to enjoy the goods of the earth whose destination is universal, as the social doctrine of the Church teaches. It is here that solidarity and sharing are founded and that the common good is pursued.

The Church, as the People of God, is a sign and instrument both of a very closely knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race. (Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 1). The Holy Eucharist constitutes, in the heart of the Church, an inexhaustible source of communion for the whole of humanity.

Pope Benedict has drawn particular attention to the plight of refugees and those who are forced to leave their homes across the world. "Welcoming refugees and giving them hospitality is for everyone an imperative gesture of human solidarity, so that they may not feel isolated because of intolerance and disinterest" (General Audience, 20 June 2007: Insegnamenti II, 1 [2007], 1158).

The Pope’s Prayer for Sunday

Dear brothers and sisters, Let us not lose hope and let us together pray God, the Father of all, to help us – each in the first person – to be men and women capable of brotherly relationships and, at the social, political and institutional levels, so that understanding and reciprocal esteem among peoples and cultures may increase.